Silence on loss of Dominican community

Dear Editor, I was surprised to see so little coverage in The Irish Catholic of how people from Drogheda walked to Tallaght on August 29 to present the Dominican HQ with a petition signed by 22,000 people objecting to the impending departure of the town’s Dominican community.

Surprised, but not heartbroken. Isn’t it time to face reality? Declining vocations over recent decades have taken a toll on Ireland’s religious orders, and maintaining the same networks of churches from an age when vocations were plentiful looks beyond them, especially in orders whose charisms require them to live as communities. This is a painful fact, but a fact nonetheless, and one there’s little virtue in hiding from.

Perhaps Drogheda can be kept open today, but can it stay open tomorrow? And in the meantime, which community should be sacrificed in its place?

Yours, etc.,

Shay Gogarty,

Navan,

Co. Meath.